Montana

I recently wrote about the latest example of stupid racist right wing lunacy in the case of Montana state Rep. Ed Butcher. Seems this red-neck, white trash idiot, in a recent legislative committee meeting, derided fellow legislator Democrat and Native American Jonathan Windy Boy (Chippewa Cree) by referring to the veteran lawmaker as “Chief Windy Boy” and inquiring whether he would wield his vice-chairman’s gavel as a “war club.” What is most amazing about this crap is that Butcher, rather than apologizing and saying it was just a bad joke, actually is going out of his way to defend his behavior, blaming the victim in the good old good-old-boy tradition.

This comes from the Indigenous Democratic Network (INDN):

INDN’s List spoke out this week against the racist and hurtful comments made by Rep. Butcher of Montana toward his fellow legislator, and friend of INDN, Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy. We want to thank the many of you that heeded our call to write Rep. Butcher and for sharing his response with us.

“You left-wing radicals should get a life with your ‘political (sic) correct nonsense!” opened Butcher in a form email to our concerned INDNs.

While the representative accuses Montana Democrats and INDN’s List of politicizing the issue, the only thing “political” is Butcher’s nasty politics-as- usual response to thoughtful, concerned citizens. We know better. There is no political gain in racism and bigotry, no political gain in perpetrating hateful myths and misguided stereotypes, no political gain in sheer disrespect for the values of average Americans.

So I have written about racism many times, both the "Angry White Man" Republican style of racism, and the "conveniently compassionate" liberal style of racism. Joe Biden seems to be putting his foot in his mouth these days making what sure sound like racist comments about Indian-Americans and Obama, but in his case he seems to just be really stupid about the jokes he makes and he apologizes afterwards. But the "Angry White Man" Republican style of racism seems far worse to me. You get an anti-Semitic pogrom in Delaware, blatantly racist Virginia politicians Virgil Goode, Jerry Kilgore and Bob McDonnell, and recently ousted Senator George Allen, and racism so blatant in Arizona even the national Republican Party abandoned a Congressional candidate.

Racism is a problem everywhere in America, including my own nice little liberal neighborhood of Park Slope, as I have written about before. But it really seems like racism is particularly bad in the Republican Party and often is defended by the Republican Party and their media lap dogs.

I was a latecomer to eating organic, and even now it is a preference, not an absolute. I favor organic when it isn't TOO expensive.

One reason I switched to organic produce is because of the taste. Simply put, organic stuff tastes better. This is partly coincidental. Organic techniques do not by definition give better taste. It is more the fact that non-organic produce is produced for appearance, not taste.

I switched to organic meat because of antibiotics. Mainstream agriculture uses antibiotics routinely in animal feed, which then leads to antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria which are becoming a human health hazard. Generally, only organic meats are guaranteed to be raised without this misuse of antibiotics. Finally, reading about geysers of pig shit on giant pig farms in one of Al Franken’s books sealed the deal with organic meat.

Slowly I realize that once you get beyond the foolish fads that some organic advocates favor, there are some real logical reasons for going organic. Agriculture is becoming increasingly unsustainable, and organic techniques can mitigate this. As environmental crises grow, this will become more and more important.

Which is why it is heartening to see that two no-nonsense organic farmers are running for office this year.

Jon Tester is running for Senate in Montana. From his website: